Genesis 16

Saved By an Angel

At the end of Genesis 15, God re-affirms his covenant commitment to Abram, reminding him that through his family all the families of the world will be blessed. Abram's descendants will be more numerous than all other peoples, and will spread out over the whole world. The New Testament tells us that those who trust in Christ are indeed the children of Abram (cf. Romans 4:11-12), and that the blessing of Abraham is what we now enjoy through Christ (Galatians 3:14).

But, of course, there was a very practical problem for Abram at this time - he had no family! He and Sarai were old, and whatever God might say to him, the fact that he had no children put an immediate stumbling-block in the way of the promises being fulfilled. There could be no descendants unless Abram himself had an heir, and if there were no descendants there could be no fulfillment of God's covenant promise.

So Abram decided to do God's work for Him. With Sarai's permission, he slept with his Egyptian concubine, Hagar, who soon gave birth to a son - Ishmael - "a man from God" - surely this was the promised heir of the covenant!

But soon the home became a place of strife; Hagar despised Sarai and was cast out to the wilderness. The plan that Abram put in motion for the accomplishing of God's saving design and purpose not only failed to do what he had reckoned, but actually made matters a whole lot worse.

That is always what happens when we try to work out salvation for ourselves, instead of relying on the promises of God. The savlation that is by faith in Christ is precisely in order that it will not be by works. That is the point of the illustration Paul makes in Galatians 4, as he distinguishes between Hagar and Sarah. No matter what we put our hand to, no matter how we try to make ourselves acceptable to God, we always fail. But there is a rescue plan in motion - a covenant rescue plan which ensures complete salvation. Abram tried to do it himself, and brought disaster, strife and heartbreak into his household. Had he listened to God, waiting on God's time and on God's word, things might have been a whole lot better.

God, however, in his grace, did not forget Hagar. There, in the wilderness, the Angel of the Lord met her, spoke to her, and gave her great promises. This is the first mention of an angel in the Bible. The figure of the Angel of the Lord is an interesting and intriguing one. Sometimes the Angel speaks as the servant of Jehovah; sometimes he speaks as Jehovah Himself. No created angel has the authority to speak as God. This was no created angel, but what Isaiah describes in 63:9 as the Angel of his Presence. This was Jesus Christ, the only one in the Scriptures who can speak as God and also as the Servant of God. In the Old Testament, Jesus took the form of an Angel on several occasions (e.g. Genesis 22:11, Exodus 3:2 etc), and revealed Himself to His people.

Just as Jesus, in the days of his humiliation on earth, met a woman from Samaria by a roadside well, so he met Hagar by a well. The God who saw right into the depths of her soul, gave her rich promises, and left her saying, "Have I seen the one who sees me?"

To be sure, Ishmael was not the son of the promise. He became the father of the Arabs, as Isaac became the father of the Jews. And yet the grace of God is seen reaching even to Hagar, and she was not left without comfort in her extremity and in her sad condition.

If we are trying to make ourselves accepted to God, let's stop, and put all our trust instead in what God has done for us in Jesus. He is the promised Saviour of the covenant. He is the set apart one, the one who sees and knows us, the one in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, and who is able to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He has come to where we are, not now in the form of an angel - now he has taken on the nature of Abraham's seed, and become a man in order that he might help and sympathise with us in all our trials. What a blessing to be saved by the Mediator-Angel of God's everlasting covenant!